List of residences of Joseph Haydn

This article is a chronologically-ordered list of the locations where the composer Joseph Haydn lived.

Haydn, who lived from 1732 to 1809, spent most of his life in a small region near Vienna no more than about 50 km. across, shown on the map at the right. This region was politically part of the Habsburg Empire; for reference the map shows the boundaries of modern-day Austria (green), Hungary (yellow), and Slovakia (pink).

November 1749-Spring/Summer 1750: Following the loss of his soprano voice (hence dismissal from St. Stephens) Haydn shared crowded lodgings with the family of Johann Michael Spangler, a professional singer at the St. Michael's church who had participated in performances with Haydn.

Shortly after ending his service as a chorister, Haydn made a pilgrimage to Mariazell.[4]

Summer 1753: Spent in the spa town of Mannersdorf, in company with his employer and teacher Nicola Porpora. Haydn served Porpora as accompanist and valet; Porpora in turn was serving the mistress of the Venetian ambassador Correr; she was visiting the spa for the summer. At parties hosted by Prince Hildburghausen, Haydn met a number of eminent composers also visiting the spa: Gluck, Wagenseil and Bonno[5]

1761–1766: Vice-Kapellmeister to the Esterházys. In these early years, the Esterházy court spent some of the time in its palace on the Wallnerstrasse in Vienna, some of the time in the family's ancestral seat, Schloss Esterházy, in the small town of Eisenstadt about 40 km. away. Haydn bought a house in Eisenstadt (shown) in 1766, on his promotion to full Kapellmeister.

1766–1790: the Esterházy court gradually shifted its time away from the old Vienna-Eisenstadt arrangement to a system involving the new palace at Esterháza, built starting in the 1760s at Fertőd in modern-day Hungary, about 40 km. from Eisenstadt. Initially, Esterháza was visited only during the summer; by 1778 this had expanded to ten months per year; and Haydn sold his house in Eisenstadt.[6] At Esterháza Haydn lived in a house in the grounds of the palace (at Madach sétány 1, now a music museum (Muzsikaház) and gallery).

Journeys during this period:

In the late 1760s the Esterházy court made various journeys to their palaces in Pressburg (modern-day Bratislava) and at Kittsee, just across the Danube from Pressburg.[7]

In the mid-1770s Haydn performed with his orchestra at the palace the Esterházys maintained near Pressburg (today called Bratislava and capital of Slovakia).[8]

1790, approx. October–December: following the death of his patron Nikolaus Esterházy on September 28, Haydn settled in Vienna, renting rooms from his friend Johann Nepomuk Hamberger, who was an official in the Lower Austrian government.[9] The address was Wasserkunstbastei no. 1196 (first numbering); entrance on Seilerstätte no. 21. Mrs. Haydn continued to rent rooms from Hamberger during Haydn's absence in London.[10] The building was later inhabited by Beethoven (1801) and was rebuilt in 1805.[11]

January 1791 – June 1792: London. The city is 1237 km. from Vienna [2], and thus vastly farther than any other location where Haydn lived.

January–May 1791: #18, Great Pulteney Street, a lodging house where Haydn's host and collaborator Johann Peter Salomon also lived. Haydn did his work in a room provided him by the Broadwood piano firm, across the way at #33.[12]

May–July 1791. Seeking quiet in which to compose,[13] Haydn moved to a farm in the then rural district of Lisson Grove. Haydn left when the farm was sold in July.[14]

August–September 1791. In the country at the home of the banker Nathanael Brassey. From historical records Scott deduces that this was called Roxford, in the village of Hertingfordbury, 21 miles to the north of London in Hertfordshire. Unlike any of the other places where Haydn lived while in England, this home is still standing.

1797–1809: a house Haydn purchased in Windmühle, then a suburb of Vienna, nowadays part of the city's 6th Bezirk, Mariahilf. The address was then Steingasse 73, today it is Haydngasse 19; the house serves as a Haydn museum.

During the earlier years of this period, Haydn also spent time in Eisenstadt organizing and directing the newly reconstituted Esterházy orchestra. 1796-1803 Haydn spent all summer months in Eisenstadt composing his masses for the nameday of Princess Hermenegild Esterházy – most of them were performed under Haydn's baton at the Bergkirche in Eisenstadt – where Haydn is buried now.

^He wrote to Marianne von Genzinger "I wished I could fly for a time to Vienna, to have more quiet in which to work, for the noise that the common people make as they sell their wares in the street is intolerable." (Robbins Landon and Jones 1988, 229)

^Robbins Landon and Jones 1988, 238: "By the end of September, if not before, Haydn was back in London: on 26 September 1791, he signed the guest book at Broadwood's piano shop across the street from his lodgings."